Lu Ming

All in all, this trip to Guangzhou City has yielded a lot, but not much.

Prior to this, European businessmen did not hesitate to fight among themselves, just to compete for an opportunity to enter the city of Guangzhou.At that time, people who entered the city of Guangzhou represented that they could buy raw silk and porcelain, which were specialties of the Ming Dynasty, and make a fortune.

But now, as long as merchant ships berth at the port of the new area, they can easily buy all kinds of goods at the port wholesale market at any time... and don't have to worry about encountering scammers.At present, there are notary offices, tax bureaus and insurance companies endorsed by traversers in the port.As long as the contract is stamped there and the deed tax is paid in full, there will be Lord Dongfang Earl to ensure the transaction between the buyer and the seller.

Everything is so safe, fast and wonderful.

Therefore, the core attraction of the old city of Guangzhou to European businessmen has disappeared.The rest, at best, is just a fresh look at travel.

……

On the third day after returning from Guangzhou City, Uncle and Nephew Crowley received another invitation to watch the ceremony.

The invitation was more important this time because the concierge narrowed the scope. Only Europeans on a certain list of "international friends" were eligible to go to inland Zengcheng County to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the cement plant.

Yes, after a three-year construction period, the Zengcheng Cement Plant, which was established as a joint venture between the time-traveling forces and the progressive gentry, is finally about to officially go into operation.

But this time when we went to the inland of the Pearl River Delta, the international friends really saw part of the hidden power of the crossing regime.

First of all, at the entrance of the waterway from the Pearl River to the Zengjiang River, the friends were able to observe the large fleet stationed at the Huangpu Military Port at close range.

Among them, the latest ship "Kaiyuan" used to maintain overseas territories shocked all witnesses.

The Kaiyuan has a huge hull, with a full-load displacement of more than 3000 tons. It is a verification-type sail warship that mainly uses steam power to sail.

In the near future, this large ship will take advantage of its high self-sustainability and high transportation capacity to become the flagship of the fleet heading south to the Philippine Sea.

Next, the ceremonial team sailed along the Zengjiang River. In the end, Crowley became the first European to set foot in an inland county of Guangdong.

Not long after, the guests saw a small city with high walls from a distance by the river.

Entering a tall and thick iron gate, the next moment, various pronunciations of "selling cakes" came out of the guests' mouths.

What caught Crowley's eyes at this moment was a castle made of steel.

Crowley swears that even in his deepest dreams, he has never seen such a hideous and terrifying city of steel: all kinds of towering towers, all kinds of ladders, and the huge "iron pillars"... Everything exudes a dark metallic luster, and Crowley seems to be in a place... Only demons can build such a steel fortress, right?

Wait, didn't you say that this is a smelting workshop for making "cement", why did it become a demon fortress?What do the Orientals want to do to me?

Crowley thought in horror.

Chapter 608 Crowley's Fantasy Journey ([-])

During the construction span of three years, the original Zengcheng Cement Plant and today's "Model Cement Plant" project have been full of twists and turns.

In fact, at the beginning, Zengcheng Cement Plant was not considered a standout compared to a red-headed document with a magnificent content of "General Planning of Industrial Layout in the Greater Guangzhou Area". It was just a basic building materials factory.

However, with the rapid development of the construction of the new district in 1631, and the relocation of a large number of industrial and commercial enterprises from Tainan to Guangzhou, the decision-makers suddenly discovered one thing: the pace of infrastructure construction in the previous plan was a little smaller, and the production speed of building materials did not keep up. Social progress has led to a hot development situation encountering a bottleneck.

After discovering the problem, the cabinet made urgent adjustments to the previous industrial layout, changing the investment direction of some resources, and a group of building material manufacturers urgently launched projects.

In this process, Zengcheng Cement Plant, which had already been half-built, was suitable for expansion due to the completion of the preliminary work, so it changed from an ordinary building materials enterprise to a key enterprise supported by the Ministry of Industry.

Now the grass chicken has become a rooster.

The vertical kiln cement production line originally designed by Zengcheng Cement Plant has been transformed into an advanced wet rotary kiln production line.

The originally planned annual output has also been increased from 5000 tons at the village-run cement plant to 3 tons at the county level.

If the main production line is changed, the supporting auxiliary equipment must also be changed.This time, the overall scale of the entire factory has increased a lot in terms of land occupation, equipment and investment.Then, due to the increase in the total investment, the Ministry of Commerce introduced some indigenous shareholders to join the project.

In the end, even the name of the upgraded Zengcheng Cement Factory was changed, and the black-lacquered mahogany brand at the gate became the "Zengcheng Model Cement Factory".

Construction started in the second half of 1630, and it is planned to be put into production in the second half of 1631.As a result, I went through the toss of changing muscles and bones in the middle, and the time cost went up all at once.

In the end, when the expansion of the model cement factory was completed, the machinery and equipment were fully debugged, and the trial production test passed, the time was dragged abruptly to the beginning of 1632, which spanned three years.

……

Master Bai Shenbai was wearing a decent beige suit, holding a civilized stick, wearing a tulle sandal on his head, and leather sandals on his feet. He was dressed like an enlightened gentleman.

At this moment, Bai Juren, with a blushing face and laughter, was busy with other shareholders, receiving people from three mountains and five mountains who came to participate in the groundbreaking ceremony.

Undoubtedly, today is the only big day in the first half of Master Bai's life that can be compared with that of the middle school.

Once again, he appeased a group of businessmen who were frightened by the appearance of the cement factory... This time they were foreign businessmen. Master Bai greeted the guests under the specially set up ceremony shed with a smile, and then called home to bring help Boy, serve some good tea to soothe the nerves of the guests, don't neglect these red-haired and blue-eyed Westerners.

As an enlightened gentry, Master Bai still knows the details of foreign businessmen.

As early as when he was young, he went to Guangzhou to rush for the exam, and he had seen Frangji.After that, Master Bai expanded his business channels. Every few years, as long as the seasons met, he would always meet Fu Langji in Guangzhou.

Afterwards, Master Bai took refuge in Marshal Cao, and the information channels became more extensive and comprehensive.Master Bai now has a good understanding of the word "Europe". He is one of the few enlightened people in this era who can clearly explain the relationship between Portugal and Spain, including geographical and political relations.

Giving followers some refined and advanced information is the unique wealth of the traversing forces.What's more, for people of Master Bai's class, the value of important information far exceeds that little money.

So, in the end, Crowley and the others were housed in a pergola in the cement factory compound.

Master Bai, who had worked hard for a long time, finally turned around and straightened up, took out a cotton handkerchief with machine-made plaid, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and took a sip of his favorite stir-fried greens.

While sipping tea, Master Bai stared at the iron hill of the cement plant, and once again expressed his heartfelt emotion: "It's so magnificent!"

Today Master Bai of Zengcheng will not despise those "country bumpkins" who lose their composure, no matter whether the bumpkins are from Guangzhou or foreign countries.Because even though he watched the cement plant being built from scratch with his own eyes, every time he came here, his heart still surged.

The sun was almost at the top of the head.At this time, the ordinary guests had already arrived, and it was time for the boss to come forward.

Sure enough, not long after, the traversers headed by the head of the new district, Ding Liqiu, walked into the factory gate surrounded by a large number of guards.

Since the Zengcheng Model Cement Factory is now a key enterprise, there are more travelers who come here today.Not only government departments, but also industry, urban construction and other departments have come.

The person responsible for welcoming the bosses is the acting factory manager, the time traveler Hou Jun.

This gentleman majored in engineering automation before time travel, which was not needed in the [-]th century, so he was sent to the kiln area for secondary employment from the very beginning. The group is responsible for "high-tech applications" such as brick kiln drying kilns on a daily basis.

Later, the group of four also established the first party within the Crossover Congregation: the Xiaoyao faction.

Now, Hou Jun, who has already illuminated the application skills of various engineering kilns, has become a technical master of the Ministry of Industry.

It is natural for a master of technology to take care of everything.This time, Hou Jun served as the chief worker and temporary factory manager of the model factory. There was no way.

Seeing the inspection team enter the door, Hou Jun, wearing a rattan helmet and ordinary overalls, led a group of cement factory shareholders in different costumes to meet the leadership inspection team.As soon as Pu Yi met, the two parties shook hands, exchanged greetings, thanked each other for their hard work, and the scene was harmonious.

To be honest, Mingren likes this kind of tone very much, especially when his family is in a lower position... Who doesn't want the superior to be approachable and amiable to him?

The inherent equality thought of the traversers and the simple etiquette they brought to future generations will naturally make followers feel like a spring breeze in the seventeenth century, an era when people often bend down and kowtow.

Even Crowley, a bystander, guessed the next process: the leaders took turns to speak on stage, and the audience clapped their hands with smiles on their faces.

By the time the bigwigs had finished speaking, it was just at noon.Hou Jun looked at the Tudor watch on his wrist, and when the minute and second hands merged, it was the auspicious time of 18.18.

The next moment, Hou Jun officially announced that the trial production of Zengcheng Model Cement Plant had started.

The workers who had been waiting for a long time at their workstations heard the order from the loudspeaker in the workshop, and started to activate the entire set of equipment in the cement plant in sequence according to the previous training process.

The spectators who were invited to visit outside the security line quickly felt uneasy and panic, because there was a rumbling roar from the steel monster in front of it, which looked extremely evil no matter how you looked at it.

However, at this moment, the faces of all the wise shareholders wearing suits, robes and straight embroidered expressions showed excitement and anticipation—they knew what would happen next during the equipment debugging process. .

The process of starting the production line was originally very long, because the power equipment of the cement plant is a steam unit, which needs to be preheated.

It is different from vehicles and ships powered by ordinary gas furnaces.Even for a county-level cement factory, the operation of the whole set of equipment requires a huge amount of power, which cannot be brought up by a few gas stoves.

However, the reality is that the industrial system cannot provide electric energy, and even a decent transformer cannot be produced, so the power of the model cement plant can only be the most simple, thick and old-fashioned steam power.

The first thing to start in the whole production line is the power plant.The unit that makes a loud noise is a combined power system composed of several reciprocating steam engines.These steam units, which had been preheated and boosted before, successfully transmitted power to the raw meal workshop through bearings and connecting rods.

The principle of cement production is actually very simple: the limestone-based mixed stone is first ground and then calcined, and the final clinker is the finished product.

Of course, there are many technical details in the middle, which cannot be explained clearly in one or two sentences.

After the power is transmitted, the various crushers and pulverizers in the raw material workshop start up.Workers wearing masks and helmets began to get busy, constantly feeding the raw materials prepared in advance into the machine.

Usually at this step, two branches of cement production emerge: dry process and wet process.

As the name implies, the dry method is to directly grind the raw material and then calcined, while the wet method is an additional process: first add water to the raw material to prepare a slurry state, and then grind and calcinate.

Anyone with a little common sense knows that using a machine to grind raw materials in a mud state is definitely better than directly grinding dry stones.In addition, there is another advantage of wet preparation, which is less environmental pollution, and dust pollution during the preparation process will be greatly reduced.

Of course, there are pros and cons.The preparation of raw meal by wet method not only consumes a lot of water resources, but also consumes more energy in the calcination step, after all, the raw meal is in a wet state.

In later generations, wet-process cement production, which was extremely wasteful of resources, was a backward industry that was shut down by the state.

Knowing the difference between the two routes, it becomes clear which method the model cement plant uses to prepare the raw meal: the wet method.

A model factory in the [-]th century, surrounded by water resources.In addition, the cement produced here is easy to sell, and there is no competitive pressure at all, so the factory does not consider the cost of buying coal at all.

On the contrary, due to the imperfection of the industrial chain, all kinds of dust removal and environmental protection equipment are extremely scarce at present.If raw materials are prepared by dry methods, not to mention environmental pollution, it will also make workers more susceptible to various occupational diseases, such as pneumoconiosis.

On the whole, in the seventeenth century, it was more cost-effective to use the world's leading high-tech wet-process cement production line.

After the well-proportioned raw material slurry was ground, the next process that shocked the natives began: a yellow dragon kept rolling, breathing fire and smoke, and the workshop was full of terrifying roars.

Several Ming masters who came from Guangzhou for the first time, when they saw this scene, they immediately knelt down for Huanglong.

Chapter 609 Crowley's Fantasy Journey ([-])

The rotary kiln with a diameter of 2.5 meters and a length of 40 meters rotates slowly in the diffuse white steam, making a huge roar of wind and fire.The majestic movement was accompanied by the flames spewing out from the kiln head and kiln tail from time to time. It looked like an earth dragon rolling and breathing in the clouds, and the natives would kneel down.

This rotary kiln that appeared in the 17th century is undoubtedly Zenith Star technology.But before that, it really took a lot of effort to get the "Earth Dragon" to be born.

Rotary kiln belongs to common construction machinery in later generations.This thing looks bulky and powerful, but it is actually a large steel cylinder with refractory bricks inside. It is not difficult to manufacture, and its technological content may not be as high as that of an agricultural harvester.

However, in the [-]th century, the steel plates, steel plate rolling, sheet metal, welding and other technologies and materials needed for a rotary kiln all caused headaches for travelers.The final product is the product of the "expert group" using a lot of "imported" resources and tackling key problems many times.

No way, the weak industrial base is like this.Travelers have come to this plane for only 5 years, except for the regular receipt of "imported" materials that are pitifully small for the industrial system, everything else needs to start from scratch.

To this day, the industrial system of Traveling Country can only be said to be a barely built "workshop system".The many workshops that are still at the level of the cast iron industry, both in terms of quantity and quality, are still at the level of black Africans in later generations, and they are not high-end at all.

Those who are also poor and poor are also encouraged by the cultivation of seedlings, so the traversers are much more miserable.Travelers who only have advantages on paper, even if they have a full set of information on the launch vehicle, the reality is that every iron nail has to go to the mountains to dig mines and burn kilns to break through the entire metallurgical industry system.

To make matters worse, with the passage of time, some high-end industrial equipment, such as electric furnaces, that were promoted in the early days by seedlings, have now fallen into a low-speed operation state due to the depletion of accessories and the encroachment of imported materials on the whole system.

In this way, building a rotary kiln can take a lot of effort.The increasingly scarce production of electric furnace steel, the shortage of rolling and sheet metal equipment, and the imported welding equipment and consumables that are actually out of stock... are just to build a leading model enterprise to act as a facade to deter the indigenous people. Otherwise, the rotary kiln No one really does this thing... Isn't it good to burn shaft kiln cement honestly?

In contrast, a circle of large-scale welded steel plates were transported from Tainan to Zengcheng Wharf, and then carried into the factory with a lot of manpower and animal power, and finally the 40-meter-long kiln body was spliced ​​and welded by the crossing people... These laborious tasks On the contrary, it is not so important.

……

"Hehe, it seems to be still effective. Master Guangzhou knelt down to greet Lord Dragon, yes, this stalk is not bad!"

Ding Liqiu, the mayor of the Special Administrative Region, was wearing an official-style jacket and trousers. His legs were uneven, his hands were folded in front of his stomach, and his eyes were smug. " face.

Not far from Ding Liqiu, the attendants were helping several masters from the ground, and helped them to the outer ceremony shed, serving tea and towels to wipe the faces of the masters.

This scene made Ding Liqiu very satisfied.

As the mayor of the special zone, how to "united front" the local gentry is an important long-term work project for Ding Liqiu.How to moisten things and quietly change the attitudes of all social strata towards the traversing forces, how to "turn enemies into friends", or at least "shock" the local conservative gentry, all these require long-term and massive work.

Showing strength is undoubtedly a shortcut.

After several years of development, some people who have been engaged in administration for a long time have realized this effective method: industrial observation can change the concept of indigenous people in a short period of time, which can be called a brainwashing artifact.

Power is power, and it is far stronger than pale propaganda.The structure of the human brain determines that a momentary shock will permanently change the previous way of thinking.

This is also one of the incidental reasons why the cabinet decided to start a rotary kiln cement plant at any cost.

Seeing the triumphant look of Ding Dafu Terrace from the sideways, Zou Guoqing, who also came to attend the groundbreaking ceremony, was upset.

Zou Guoqing can be regarded as the highest-ranking traveler in the interior today.This gentleman is the minister of industry and a member of the cabinet: "Old Ding, do you know that there are two bombs and one star? This is it for today. In order to save such a large pillar for you, the life of the electric furnace at the industrial port and the imported welding materials have all been used up. "Don't forget the well digger when you drink water, you have to show something when you look back, otherwise there will be no future!"

Ding Liqiu rubbed his teeth.He is not a fool who knows nothing about industry, and as a high-level traveler, he knows a lot of inside information.

At the conference to be held in the second half of the year, some national policies of the crossing country will propose changes, and it is likely to revise the industrial development route in the middle: sinking to lay the foundation, and follow the steam rivet route.

In this way, the supply of imported welding equipment and materials will definitely be cut off... In fact, the supply has been cut off for a long time, and the remaining materials are a one-off sale. Where is it not used?

"I said, it's just an iron cylinder. Why, why are there two bombs and one satellite? National Day, don't make random comparisons!"

Zou Guoqing said "Hey" when he heard this, and put on a conversational posture: "Old Ding, you don't engage in industry, and you don't understand some situations. In fact, two bombs and one star and our iron cylinder are both Made by hand."

"That's right, they are all the highest technology of the time, and they are all handmade by senior workers."

Seeing Zou Guoqing's determination, Ding Liqiu said helplessly: "Even if everyone has 'top' technology, but this thing can't go to the sky, and can't blow up people, why should it be used as an atomic bomb?"

Zou Guoqing slapped his thigh: "Spiritual atomic bomb! Didn't those retired officials you fooled here get scared to pee? I think your big teeth are going to laugh out loud? Don't think I don't know that you guys are usually What are you doing, I am a member of the cabinet after all... Hmph, isn't it just to instigate rebellion?"

After Ding Liqiu heard the word "cabinet member", his face changed, and finally he smiled... The face of the cabinet boss is to be given: "Look at what you said, brothers have been busy for so long, Lao Ding and I You can see it all, and talk about something when you turn around!"

Zou Guoqing saw that the adults in Futai were "knowledgeable", and then he showed a smile on his face: "Old Ding, how about this, I will call people to add some sound and light effects to this thing later, the steam locomotive type, wheezing, make sure there will be a scare!" How about one?"

"Then what are you going to do? Just say it, don't mess with those who don't make sense."

"Hey, isn't this going to be a conference? I have a few proposals from my side, and you can raise your hand if you see it... yelling..."

"Well... well... I want to study and study."